Palm Pre: You Call 50,000 Sold a Success?

Some early estimates are in on how the Palm Pre did its launch weekend. J.P. Morgan puts sales at more than 50,000, other analysts go as high as 100,000. Everyone is trying to spin this as a success because Sprint (S) stores “sold out” of their inventory. Investors aren’t buying the story. Shares of Palm (PALM) are down 10 percent, as of this writing.

The opening weekend Palm Pre inventory was too low to begin with—either because of manufacturing constraints, Palm’s own financial constraints, or by design. It’s always good PR to be able to say you sold out. But if Palm seriously wants to go up against the iPhone it is going to have to do a lot better. When the first-generation iPhone launched two years ago, in comparison, Apple sold 146,000 units its first weekend. By the time Apple (AAPL) came out with its second iPhone 3G last year, it sold one million units the first weekend.

Apple has been prepping the market for the past two years, spending millions on convincing everyone that they need a Web phone. Palm and others should be able to tap into all of that good feeling during this Summer of Smartphone Love. If Palm and Sprint don’t get their act together, there won’t be much love left for them. If the experience described by iJustine in the video below is any indication (she couldn’t even find a working Palm Pre at either Best Buy or a Sprint store to try out before buying), the low-inventory excuse is already wearing thin with consumers.

Original post

Comments

[Eye Forget:]

"Apple sold 146,000 units its first weekend."

Try 270,000 in the first 30 hours.

Jun 08 03:23 PM

[Nextel Acce...:]

they sold everything they had in stock. that is all that matters.....

Jun 08 04:06 PM

[un known:]

Just a thought.

When the iPhone came out, it was a style play and Apple really tried to distinguish itself from every other phone in the market at the time and spent heavily to do so. Who doesn’t remember the non stop commercials that seemed to play one after another?

Obviously we are in different economic times and there wasn’t that same amount of spend of the Pre introduction. At an introductory price about half of the iPhone's launch price, I am guessing that a value pitch is being utilized versus iPhone's premium pricing.

What matters most to developers is how many addressable units are in market and the level of effort to morph existing apps to the target environment. In either of these measures I wouldn't dismiss the Pre so quickly. As long as the units eventually reach the millions, the rest will follow and with value pricing, I wouldn’t bet against them reaching that milestone rapidly.

Jun 08 04:40 PM

[another.ana...:]

Not to worry, Pre fanoids & fannoidettes.

Just wait till PALM's next smoking issue in about 6 months---THE CHAPTER 11!!

Ayuh

Jun 08 09:27 PM

[Tom B:]

I think Palm has 50,000 greedy pundits talking up the Pre, just like that emperor in that fairy tale with e the "new clothes".

Jun 09 09:11 AM

[User 428628:]

How much did Apple or Apple fanboys pay you to do this video? I have a iPhone its the stupidiest thing ever. I cannot have my IM app running while doing something else like checking email or making a call! How dumb you have to be to release a product without the ability to run apps in the background!

Jun 09 03:47 PM